What led to the resignation of Shri N Biren Singh as CM of Manipur

Oinam Nabakishore Singh *

Chief Minister N Biren Singh, tendered his resignation to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on February 09 2025 :: Pix - Chronicle News

Shri N. Biren Singh, who had been in the chair of Manipur Chief Minister for almost eight years, had to submit his resignation from that post on the 9th February, 2025. The events leading to his resignation were in clear view of all in the state.

His poor handling of the crisis in Manipur before and after the eruption of violence between armed groups of Kuki-Zo and Meitei on the 3rd May, 2023 is considered pivotal for the culmination in his resignation.

Right from day one, Kuki-Zo civil societies have been calling Shri N Biren Singh to be partisan in favour of his community, the Meiteis. He is alleged by the CSOs of those communities to be behind Meitei organizations of Arambai Tengol and Meitei Leepun.

The looting of arms and ammunitions from the police stations, Police Training College in Imphal valley took place after the onset of violence in May, 2023 without any palpable resistance from security officers on duty.

The leaked audio clip, alleged to be voice of Shri N. Biren Singh, was shared in social media especially on youtube channel, the Wire, last year. Making serious allegation of complicity of Shri Biren Singh in launching assault against the Kuki-Zo communities living at Imphal valley and in foothills, and promise of protection to those who looted the arms from armouries as purportedly revealed in the audio clip mentioned here, Kuki Human Rights Trust approached the Supreme Court of India with senior advocate Shri Prashant Bhushan pleading before the court on their behalf.

After the report of Truth Lab, a private forensic lab, reported probable matching of 93 percent of the voice in the audio clip with samples of voice of Shri N. Biren Singh, the Supreme Court bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Chief Justice of India and Justice Sanjay Kumar have now called for a report from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) before the next date fixed on the 24 th March, 2025.

In case a positive report is submitted to the highest court by the CFSL, there would be embarrassment not only for Shri N. Biren Singh but also for the entire Bharatiya Janata Party leadership, which boasts of occupying moral high ground.

Further, considering the gravity of the acts of commission and omission in the context of ongoing conflict in Manipur, the Supreme Court may order initiation of criminal investigation by an independent agency against Shri Biren Singh. There appears to be a good chance of levelling charges against Shri Biren Singh under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita in appropriate court for trial.

National Peoples Party(NPP), which got seven MLAs elected to Manipur State Assembly, being a partner of National Democratic Alliance(NDA) at national level decided to extend support to the BJP-led state government in 2022. However, there was no formal alliance between BJP and NPP by way of sharing powers and having a common minimum programme.

By not having any Minister in the Council of Ministers from NPP, the bond of relationship between BJP and NPP in Manipur has been, at best, very fragile unlike in the previous government from 2017 to 2022. No mechanism of coordination between them was in place.

On the other hand, Naga Peoples’ Front(NPF), which returned five candidates in the 2022 assembly election, and a member of NDA shared power in the state by having two Ministers from it in the Cabinet. It was considered to be a reliable party to stand by BJP at all circumstances.

When the result of State Assembly Election, 2022 was declared, BJP cornered the lion’s share of 32 seats, a comfortable majority in the house of 60. It had the strength to form the government on its own. With five MLAs of NPF, the grouping of BJP and NPF had a strength of 37 MLAs. Later on, after the government was sworn in, NPP with 7 MLAs, Janata Dal (United) with 6 MLAs, Kuki People’s Alliance(KPA) with 2 MLAs and 2 Independent MLAs too extended support to the BJP-led government one after the other.

As such, the government enjoyed the support of 55 MLAs leaving 5 MLAs of Indian National Congress (INC) in the opposition bench. Adding icing to the cake, 5 MLAs of Janata Dal (United) defected to join BJP on 2 nd September, 2022 taking the total number of BJP MLAs to 37 in the house of 60 members. The lone of JD(U) MLA, though very close to Shri N. Biren Singh, chose to remain in JD(U) as it is considered to be suicidal for a Muslim MLA to contest on BJP ticket.

The trouble for Shri N. Biren Singh started when violence erupted on the 3rd May, 2023. His problem increased after 10 Kuki-ZO MLAs including two Cabinet Ministers and comprising of 7 BJP MLAs openly issued a Press Statement demanding separate administration from Manipur for their community on the 12 th May, 2023. In fact, they have distanced themselves in every sense from Shri N. Biren Singh government accusing it to be partial.

Later on, Kuki People’s Alliance, an ally of NDA having 2 MLAs from Kuki-Zo community withdrew their support to Shri N. Biren Singh Government on the 6 th August, 2023 in view of the conflagration in the state.

Consequently, the support of 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs to the state government could be concluded to be unavailable as early as 2023. The anguish against Shri N. Biren Singh was all the more apparent when Kuki-Zo members of Peace Committee constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India decline to be associated with the said Committee on the ground that Shri N. Biren Singh, Chief Minister was on the Committee as a member.

It is in the knowledge of many that a few BJP MLAs have been camping in Delhi for considerable time to persuade central BJP leaders to dislodge Shri N. Biren Singh as Chief Minister. Their plea for removal of Shri N. Biren Singh gathered strength due to the failure of latter to resolve the ongoing conflict in Manipur. There was a cry from many sections of the society especially those in relief camps for Shri N. Biren Singh to step down.

However, the wind to the sail came from pending petitions for disqualification of 6 JD(U) MLAs, 5 NPP MLAs in the Speaker’s tribunal under the Tenth Schedule of Indian Constitution. The cases of disqualification 11 MLAs were promptly taken up by the Speaker of the Assembly on day-to-day basis after Assembly session was summoned and judgments on them were reserved on 7th and 8th February, 2025.

It was reported that the fate of 11 MLAs, who could support Shri N. Biren Singh as Chief Minister, is now in the hands of Speaker. Shri N. Biren Singh could not recognize the importance of the support of 7 NPP MLAs, as he enjoyed comfortable majority with his own party MLAs and NPF MLAs.

However, to his utter surprise and seemingly innocuous move by NPP, the latter withdrew support of their 7 MLAs to Shri N. Biren Singh government in November, 2024 on the ground of his failure to restore peace and normalcy in Manipur.

However, they promised to support the BJP government on change of leadership of Shri N. Biren Singh by another BJP MLA, which further put pressure on him to perform. The number of MLAs that will be available to support either the leadership of Shri N. Biren Singh or dissidents got reduced further with the fate of 11 MLAs against whom judgments of disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution was reserved.

Desperation on the part of dissident BJP MLAs was exacerbated by the growing dissatisfaction of people with BJP as a political party as demonstrated by the result of the election in 2024 to 2 seats of Lok Sabha in Manipur, when Indian National Congress Candidates won by huge margins defeating BJP candidate and NPF candidate. Contesting the next election to state Assembly scheduled in early 2027 on the BJP ticket raises many questions in the face of anti-BJP sentiments among some section of the society.

Despite efforts by the Central leadership of BJP to convince dissident MLAs of BJP to support Shri N. Biren Singh as Chief Minister in the event of a motion of no-confidence by MLAs of Indian National Congress in the Assembly Session due to commence on the 10th February, 2025, dissidents stuck to their ground.

There were efforts on the part of Shri N Biren Singh and his supporters to request Union Home Minister to prevail upon the dissident MLAs to support him. When the number was not on his side, the threat of no-confidence motion of 5 INC MLAs on the floor of Assembly became too difficult to face for Shri N. Biren Singh.

For the dissidents, the stance of 10 Kuki-ZO MLAs against Shri N. Biren Singh and uncertain fate of 11 MLAs facing disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which was at the hand of Speaker, improved their bargaining chip.

In such a circumstance, Shri N. Biren Singh was wisely advised by the central leaders of BJP to avoid embarrassment of failure at no-confidence motion. He submitted his resignation as Chief Minister to the Governor of Manipur in the evening of the 9 th February, 2025, one day ahead of commencement of Assembly Session.